1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for the combined developing and printing of photographic material.
2. State of the Prior Art
The prior art embraces automatic machines capable of developing exposed photographic films and printing the images from developed films onto light-sensitive paper, all of which is carried out continuously. Machines of the type in question find use principally in photographic laboratories where large quantities of photographic material are developed and printed. Such machines require skilled and properly trained staff, and they typically have substantial dimensions that dictate a need for a considerable amount of space.
There has been a trend in recent years for general photographic developing and printing services to be offered even by commercial enterprises with no claim to specialization in this particular field, for example stationers, department stores, etc. endeavoring to offer a comprehensive service, though often with limited space at their disposal, and without especially skilled staff.
To meet such demands, multifunctional automatic machines have been designed in which the developing and printing stages are incorporated into a single unit. However, these machines still tend either to be bulky, and therefore unsuitable for installation in the spaces that are typically available, or lacking in flexibility of use, able to produce only the more familiar commercial sizes of print, being prevented by limited space from handling larger items, such as 30.times.45 cm. For this type of business, which if retained would be a great advantage to the user, given the notable added value attached, films must still be sent to specialized laboratories. Further negative aspects of these machines are to be found in their monolithic structure. In effect, the typical casing almost invariably presents an obstacle to the replacement of units or devices such as the film developing unit, the printing unit, and the print developing unit, when found to fall short of the performance required, or in the event of changes to the processing method. More exactly, units designed and built to perform single specific functions will be of characteristic shapes and dimensions that turn out, in practice, to be incompatible with those of other units, and thus must be separated from one another, with the result that additional space is taken up. If designed and built to be incorporated into an overall system, on the other hand, such units would be effectively fixed, permitting no modifications or adaptation whatever, and still having significantly large dimensions. Especially in the case of monolithic types of structure, servicing operations are rendered troublesome, because even the simplest of inspections can involve a laborious dismantling of a great many of the panels making up the outer casing of the machine.